FEBRUARY 11, 1954

CHICAGO, Wednesday—It is always amusing to be in Chicago and read the Chicago Tribune. I find highlighted
on the front page the attacks made by the Democrats on the Administration for "mean,
untrue and dastardly" things said against the Democratic party by Republicans in office.

Senator Rayburn, Democratic leader, also told the House that "people high in the Administration
hint that anybody who calls himself a Democrat is at least tinged with communism."
The care with which all this is reported leads you to believe that it is not unpleasant
to the Chicago Tribune to have the Administration so attacked.

Then you come to the editorial page and find an editorial headed, "A Homespun Roosevelt"
and who do you suppose that is—President Eisenhower, to be sure.

Everything he has done is criticized and the inference is left with you that there
is really not much choice between Franklin Roosevelt of the past and Ike Eisenhower
in the present.

Knowing how much the Chicago Tribune disliked President Roosevelt, one is a little
surprised to find that a Republican newspaper apparently dislikes almost as much a
Republican President. To a Democrat, this is reassuring, however, for a house divided
against itself is apt to have trouble and if the two groups in the Republican Party
can't come closer together, they may not be as strong as they expect to be. This may
be one reason why the gossip around Washington seems to indicate a reluctance on the
part of Republican officials to buy houses. I was told most of them were living in
apartments or hotels which also would indicate that they are not too sure of the length
of their tenure of office.

One thing, however, has been remarkably well handled, I think. Namely, the opposition
to the Bricker amendment. That built up slowly but has come about in a way which permitted
those who once thought it might be a good thing, to change their minds and to slide
out gracefully. This has been a question, however, which affected the future of the
nation and was not, strictly speaking, one that could be looked at in a partisan way.
Sensible men who understood government, on carefully examining the proposed amendment
came to see that it was dangerous. It would tie the hands of future Presidents, both
Republicans and Democrats, and would slow important decisions which ought to be possible
for the President to make. It would have made much more difficult even taking action
on treaties where the Senate's ratification was a normal part of the procedure.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR
IN PART PROHIBITED.)